Historical changes in the sphere of the English vocabulary: Celtic borrowings.

The Celtic languages are a group of languages in the Indo-European family. The Germanic group, which contains Norse, Swedish, Dutch, German and English, is another branch of the Indo-European family tree, while the Romance group, (now often called Italic) which includes the languages Latin, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian French, and Romanian, is a third branch of the I.E. tree.

Celtic languages had but a marginal influence on the English vocabulary. Among Celtic loan-words we may mention d ii n (MnE down) ‘dune’, dun ‘dun’, binn ‘bin’.

Some Celtic elements have been preserved in geographical names: Gaelic amhuin ‘river’ in Avon, Euan; Gaelic cothair ‘fortress’ in Carnarvon; Gaelic uisge ‘water’ in Exe, Usk, Esk\ dun, dam ‘hill’ in Dumbarton, Dumfries, Dunedin-, llan ‘church’ in Llandaff, Llandovery, Llandudno-, coil ‘forest’ in Kilbrook, Killiemore-, kil ‘church’ in Kilbride, Kilmacolm-, Ceann ‘cape’ in Kebadre, Kingussie-, inis ‘island’ in Innisfail-, inbher ‘mountain’ in Inverness, Inverurie-, bail ‘house’ in Ballantrae, Ballyshannon.

On the whole, the percentage of loan-words in OE was very insignificant, as compared with later periods.

Ø dun ‘dark colored’, binn ‘basket, crib’, bard‘poet’,clan‘children or family’,slogan < Scots sluaghghairm ‘war cry’, whiskey < uisgebeatha ‘water of life’.

Ø The majority of the Celtic elements survived in geographical names. Most English river names are British: Avon < amhuin ‘river’, Exe, Usk, Esk < uisge ‘water’, Thames, Dover.

Ø London was originally Lon-dunum < dun, dum ‘hill’; Kent < Cantium, from a prehistoric Celtic *kanto-, meaning either ‘border’ or ‘white’; llan ‘church/the site of a small Celtic monastery’ in LLandudno, LLandaff; kil ‘church’ in Kilbride, Kilmacolm; -torr ‘high rock’ in Torcross, Torhill, Torr; bail‘house’ in Ballyshannon, Ballantrae; inis ‘island’ in Innisfail;

Ø Several dozen places names were generated by a complicated interaction among British, Latin & English: Manchester (mān ‘small, little’), Winchester, Gloucester, Worcester, Salisbury, Exeter, Lichfield.

A short list of English words derived from Celtic

1) ambassador from Gaulish *ambactos “servant”, “one who goes about”

2) bard ‘a poet’

3) bog‘a piece of wet spongy ground’ (from bogach “a bog”, or bog “soft”)

4) boreen‘a small country road’ (from bóithrín)

5) brogues‘a type of shoe’ (from bróg “a shoe”)

6) bunny now obsolete word for ‘a rabbit warren’

7) clan from clann “children” or “family”

8) caroriginally “two-wheeled Celtic war chariot” (from Gaulish karros)

9) down from Celtic root dún

10) druid ‘derwydd’, possibly derived from “derw” meaning ‘oak’

11) flannel the etymology of this word is uncertain, but that it is likely to have come from the Welsh gwlanen “flannel”. Another suggested source is Old French flaine “blanket”

12) fiacre ‘a small four-wheeled carriage for hire, a hackney-coach’. This derives from the Old Irish given name fiacre (of uncertain meaning, perhaps ‘battle king’)

13) penguin possibly from pen gwyn “white head”

14) skean from sgian “a knife”

15) slogan from sluagh-ghairm “battle-cry”

16) trousers from triubhas via “trews”

17) twig ‘to understand, catch on’, from tuig “understand”

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